It's that time again Calgary. You managed to get ahead of the Mighty Oil by a measly two goals last Battle of Alberta. Fortunately the good guys dug deep and managed to pump eight straight past your goaltending duo. Eight. Straight. Goals.

Let the soundtrack be the sequel to Gangham Style which dropped today. We have a few things to say.

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

Perhaps someone can explain why the Flames have won two of your last three games since selling off everything of value in the Saddledome including the scoreboard. Do the remaining "NHL calibre players" not understand what needs to happen from here on out? You need to l-o-s-e. Every game. Not squeak out shootout victories in Phoenix and celebrate like you are a few good powerplays away from being back on top.

You're so bad down in Calgary that you are bad at being bad. Let that sink in. Up here we are great at being bad. Hell the Oilers are the Lebron Jameseses of being bad - we understand exactly what it takes. A burning desire to see your squad crater into the league basement at 800 km/h, the ability to mail it in on any given night. You have to want it for heaven's sakes.

Fortunately the Oil will show you how to spectacularly implode as they look to pump another 8 past you tonight. Think of it as helping kick off your 6 year rebuild.

FIRST GAME FOR @17SAMB

Speaking of people who are doing it wrong the residents of the venerable Wanye Manor here in Edmonton have elected to scalp tickets for tonight and take Edmonton's newest permanent resident - former Morningside Panther Sam Brown - to his first Oilers game.

This guy is one hell of an Oiler fan already mind you - he knows the team from tip to toe and has been streaming games from Australia all year. He knows that Tambo is an indecisive wreck riddled with crippling second guessing and is more interested in solving the Caramilk Mystery than he is figuring out how to take the Oilers to the next level.

But we still have blind faith in the Oilers up here. Yes they may have cooled off after being red hot and yes it's not looking good for the Mighty Oil to streak into the post season. But you gotta keep the faith that selling most of the furniture in the Manor and going to a Saturday Night Battle of Alberta will result in victorious mayhem.

You think the Oil are going to let down Sam Brown at his first Oilers game?

Please. Chalk this up as a win right now.

LINES: OILERS

According to the Oilers official twitter feed there will be no changes in the Oilers lineup from last game

F

Hall-RNH-Eberle

Paajarvi-Gagner-Yakupov

Jones-Horcoff-Petrell

Smyth-Smithson-Brown

D

Smid/Petry

N.Schultz/J.Schultz

Whitney/Fistric

Khabibulin gets the start in net.

LINES: FLAMES

The Flames lineup is hard to determine tonight. Their official site has no mention of how things are shaping up, nor does their twitter feed. The ever helpful folks over at Coppernblue have published the lineup below which is quite a different squadron than suggested in the Edmonton Sun today. It's almost as though the Flames themselves are running a smoke screen to mask how far the franchise has fallen.

Anyways, the "lines" are as follows:

F

Horak - Cammalleri - Baertschi

Glencross- Backlund - Stempniak

Hanowski - Reinhart - Jones

Jackman - Cervenka - McGrattan

D

Giordano/Wideman

Brodie/Sarich

Butler/Carson

Joey MacDonald gets the start tonight until he is inevitably pulled.

Note: Rumour has it that Glencross is out too with some sort of mystery illness - most likely being sick of being a Flame. If this happens chuck another crumb you have never heard of onto a line randomly.

Note 2: In addition to having one of the worst lineups in the NHL, the Flames have to be near the top for the hardest lineup to spell. Who the hell are any of these players? What the hell is a Ben Hanowski?

PREDICTIONS

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers remember that they might be on the outside looking in this year but the Flames are on the outside of the outside looking in. They shell them into oblivion.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: After lumbering into his perch in the press box Flames GM Jay Feaster will scan the lineup for tonight's match. "Jeez the Flames don't look very good on paper do they?" After it's brought to his attention that it is in fact his job to fix the lineup he will dimly shrug his shoulders and say "nothing that can't keep till the summer am I right? Now where's that free popcorn I heard about up here?"

From across the press box Steve Tambellini smiles knowingly and gives him the thumbs up.

I'm a diehard Oilers fan but I just can't take it anymore. Unless there are significant changes in the offseason, I'm going to have to join DSF and just point out all the mistakes the Oilers make as there is literally no hope...

Speaking of people who are doing it wrong the residents of the venerable Wanye Manor here in Edmonton have elected to scalp tickets for tonight and take Edmonton's newest permanent resident - former Morningside Panther Sam Brown - to his first Oilers game.

I thought the Oil were supposed to start improving. Loyal patient fans paying top dollar to watch losing efforts (half of the Oilers existence in the NHL out of the playoffs). Look at competent managers and you realize how amateur Lowe and Tambo are. Lowes post 2006 trades were terrible and Tambo's moves have been ineffective. When will these two losers be replaced? They've already fired everyone else, when is their turn? I've been an Oiler fan since the WHA days, and I will always follow them, but this is getting ridiculous. Is a half-decent team that tries hard and makes the playoffs once is awhile to much to ask for? This is BS.

This is the difference between Flames and Oiler fans...Flames fans think their team is close to good while Oiler fans know that the team is a mess and has some cornerstone pieces to build around. What is the Flames nucleus? These teams are headed in very different directions.

I don't think the Flames are close at all. Read the part about where I said they have completely blown it up. The Oilers have some decent cornerstone pieces but after this long and this many high picks, you would think they would be a little further along. That's why I find it funny that Oiler fans rip Flame management for how brutal they are.

I know your trying to forget that 8-2 beating but it did actually happen.

Just beat the Flames in regulation so they can get a crack at one of those great draft choices. Shouldn't be a problem since they played last night and have very few vets playing. This will give all your young stars a chance to pad their stats so you can forget that they have done nothing against the teams they are supposedly competing against for a playoff spot.

A good measuring stick for the Oilers tonight. If there was ever a free space on their bingo card, tonight is it. Should be interesting to see if they get outworked by the Flames. Oilers could have a little of that overconfidence thing going on tonight. Edmonton will be in trouble if the kids don't win this on their own.

A good measuring stick for the Oilers tonight. If there was ever a free space on their bingo card, tonight is it. Should be interesting to see if they get outworked by the Flames. Oilers could have a little of that overconfidence thing going on tonight. Edmonton will be in trouble if the kids don't win this on their own.

From the committee for yet another top 3 Oilers pick.....GO CALGARY!

Better watch out for that top 3 pick there, Carolina is going to give both teams a run for their money at worst.

Avs beat Canucks today. Good seeing the Canucks lose, and good to see the Avs gain 2 points. Bring on the draft!

A good measuring stick for the Oilers tonight. If there was ever a free space on their bingo card, tonight is it. Should be interesting to see if they get outworked by the Flames. Oilers could have a little of that overconfidence thing going on tonight. Edmonton will be in trouble if the kids don't win this on their own.

From the committee for yet another top 3 Oilers pick.....GO CALGARY!

If a healthy Oiler team loses tonight, they better start the rebuild again.

It will be fun pumping 8 or 9 into the Flames net, but do not for a second think that I support Tambo. Well, I do support his FIRING! The best part of the Lames, worse mgmt than the us! I didn't think that was possibe! Thanks Jay I love a big FEASTer.

It will be fun pumping 8 or 9 into the Flames net, but do not for a second think that I support Tambo. Well, I do support his FIRING! The best part of the Lames, worse mgmt than the us! I didn't think that was possibe! Thanks Jay I love a big FEASTer.

Time will tell if the managment is worse. Flames would have to crap out many years in a row to match the futility of the Oil with K Lowe et al at the helm.

A good measuring stick for the Oilers tonight. If there was ever a free space on their bingo card, tonight is it. Should be interesting to see if they get outworked by the Flames. Oilers could have a little of that overconfidence thing going on tonight. Edmonton will be in trouble if the kids don't win this on their own.

From the committee for yet another top 3 Oilers pick.....GO CALGARY!

Yotes beat Oil. 2 nights later, Heat beat Yotes. Not sure if it would be considered a free space other than the fact that the Heat played last night. I don't want them to win so...From the commitee for the FIRST Flames top 5 pick EVER....Go OIL

Wanye, the Oilers are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the seventh year in a row. Your model is not the model to teams wish to emulate themselves after. Look at Ottawa or Montreal, Ottawa missed the playoffs one year and are now ready to make the playoffs in back to back years. Not years and years of losing. The Habs were dead last season and are now 2nd in the Eastern Conference. Zibanejad, Silfverberg, Greening, Galchenyuk, Gallagher are doing way more for their teams than Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Yakupov and Schultz are doing for the Oilers.

It is very dangerous to bring kids into a losing environment, after being there too long you become accustomed to it. Losing has become the norm in Edmonton, which is why the Oiler kids have accepted losing. All I know is the Flames got 3 picks in the first round and a great chance to land MacKinnon.

We might want to switch the top two lines around to counter Glencross, we want Halls speed to nullify Glencrosses impact from the second line, the Flames have him there to create scoreing depth and he is to much physically for the Gagner line with Magnus coming off an injury.

We want dynamic control of everything especially matchups they create for tactical reasons, we want Halls speed scoreing against Glencrosses line, not MPSes physicality trying to defend against it, if we allow Curtis to go one on one with Magnus this year he will have an edge, next year he wont, now we want to use Halls speed to neutralise their gameplan. We want MPSes size and speed pressuring their 1st line where we gain an edge instead of lose one.

These lines are perfect from a dynamic managment standpoint now we just need to slot them into the right spots.

I sincerely hope Ralph doesnt wait more than 5 or 10 mins to switch it up if we dont have an advantage, a sawoff isnt good enough, we need an advantage and we need to be willing and able to adjust to create it as many times as we can in 60 mins.

The way the Flames are structured now is fragile and it only takes one or two small adjustments like this to shut them down and collapse their system, but if we let them dictate dynamics they might get an early lead and take the two points. We can be sure they will try to get a fast start off of mis-matches early and will be looking to Curtis as a leader, so lets feed him a solid dose of Taylor Halls BadMedicine demon-like speed.

7-2 Oilers. Blood will be shed. No one should be caught looking at their passes tonight or stretching to far or they might lose their head. Gagner and Yakupov are ready to light it up, and Magnus is feeling better finally. If Glencross goes against Hall look for Taylor to tear him up and score multiple goals, I predict if they matchup it forces calgary to move Glencross to the top line, and then ha ha ha we can move Taylor up as well to tear at him like a Maddog some more, I would just be a predator and target their strengths with ours and run them down like a wolf runs down its dinner. First Hamstring their ability to run away and then just keep biting. Hell Cammellari and Gagner would probably throw down and get it on tonight if we slotted Sams line in the number one spot,ha ha ha.

We might want to switch the top two lines around to counter Glencross, we want Halls speed to nullify Glencrosses impact from the second line, the Flames have him there to create scoreing depth and he is to much physically for the Gagner line with Magnus coming off an injury.

We want dynamic control of everything especially matchups they create for tactical reasons, we want Halls speed scoreing against Glencrosses line, not MPSes physicality trying to defend against it, if we allow Curtis to go one on one with Magnus this year he will have an edge, next year he wont, now we want to use Halls speed to neutralise their gameplan. We want MPSes size and speed pressuring their 1st line where we gain an edge instead of lose one.

These lines are perfect from a dynamic managment standpoint now we just need to slot them into the right spots.

I sincerely hope Ralph doesnt wait more than 5 or 10 mins to switch it up if we dont have an advantage, a sawoff isnt good enough, we need an advantage and we need to be willing and able to adjust to create it as many times as we can in 60 mins.

The way the Flames are structured now is fragile and it only takes one or two small adjustments like this to shut them down and collapse their system, but if we let them dictate dynamics they might get an early lead and take the two points. We can be sure they will try to get a fast start off of mis-matches early and will be looking to Curtis as a leader, so lets feed him a solid dose of Taylor Halls BadMedicine demon-like speed.

7-2 Oilers. Blood will be shed. No one should be caught looking at their passes tonight or stretching to far or they might lose their head. Gagner and Yakupov are ready to light it up, and Magnus is feeling better finally. If Glencross goes against Hall look for Taylor to tear him up and score multiple goals, I predict if they matchup it forces calgary to move Glencross to the top line, and then ha ha ha we can move Taylor up as well to tear at him like a Maddog some more, I would just be a predator and target their strengths with ours and run them down like a wolf runs down its dinner. First Hamstring their ability to run away and then just keep biting. Hell Cammellari and Gagner would probably throw down and get it on tonight if we slotted Sams line in the number one spot,ha ha ha.

I don't think the Flames are close at all. Read the part about where I said they have completely blown it up. The Oilers have some decent cornerstone pieces but after this long and this many high picks, you would think they would be a little further along. That's why I find it funny that Oiler fans rip Flame management for how brutal they are.

If you spent any time on Oilers Nation you would know Oilers fans don't think too highly of our management. We just realize the only group more inept is that of the Calgary Flames organization. Also this is year 4 of the rebuild.

Where's the smack talk Wayne? And wherever did you find that entertaining music video? Very fresh of you as usual... The most hilarious thing about the Oilers is that even when they are at their best, they still suck. Good on you.

I promise that one day I will make it through one of your whole posts.

I was referring to all those playoff series you beat us in back in the day.

That period of 8 years (83-90) where one Alberta team went to the Stanley Cup finals every year. Our teams met 4 times in that perIod with the Oilers winning 3 (83,84,88). The Flames only won in 86. They met in 91, also with the Oilers winning.

They were arguably the two best teams in the league for that time period. And when it came to playoffs the Oilers were the victors more often...

Wanye: I think you could make quite the business out of bringing in Oiler fans from around the world, like Sam, putting them up and getting them settled in EDM whilst also taking them to their first Oiler games...

p.s. I am an Oiler fan of nearly 8 years, from the UK and with little monetary means of actually making it to Canada in the near future to see the team, not trying to hint at anything but, ya know, whatever... ADOPT ME WANYE!

GlenX is not playing. If he did Taylee should be sheltered from his line.

Flames are fragile? Compared to the Oil???

7-2 Oilers..we will see.

I didnt know Glencross wasnt playing, inthat case roll them as they are.

Halls speed is world class and he isnt totally green anymore, he has faced some of the NHLs toughest lines, with a team as thin as Calgary is right now Glencross is an important cog for them, so he is more valuable right now as an offensive weapon than a defensive tool, so my thinking was to attack him with constant speed instead of try to defend against him.

I believe the Flames are fragile mentally and their system is totally compromised, you cant lose an Iginla and replace his system savvy.

Just get the lead on them and watch them collapse, keep the speed and energy coming and they will quickly lose focus, they will be stuck in between running with us and getting ugly, but as long as we keep the energy high and our execution crisp and constantly aggressive they will break.

We need to overcome the reffing influences and take the game out of their hands by scoring first and often, no keeping it close, no patience, just 100% offense. Run and gun, we are past the point of being serious now, and the final result we have this season will depend on other teams so we can relax and gun them up.

We will take penaltys tonight so they might as well be caused by real hockey effort and offensive aggression not lazy stick penaltys and linechange errors or other odd things. Keep the pedal stapeled to the floor and hang on, thats the best plan, there comes a time to be realistic, not pessimistic but to simply accept where you are and then relax and just let it all hang out there on the ice for 60 mins.

Lets try to give Yakupov J Schultz a legitimate shot at the Calder trophy for the remainder of the season, who cares if the opposition knows we are feeding them the pucks, lets get jiggy with it. Just three times in the right spot and Yakupov has a hattrick , we can do that for him tonight. A little extra effort on the finishes after passes from Justin Shultz will boost him in the race as well, lets work for them tonight. Nuge deserves some gravy tonight as well, he has put out all year long, now lets give him some sugar. Worrying about the playoff race is now counterproductive we need to work for each others personal achievements now as much as for beating the playoff odds.

Going after Joey is classless... try someone else instead, and I'll even spot you a few names to start you off: Tambellini, Lowe, Katz, Krueger, random current player, random past player, random writer or random poster... use some imagination, and by the way, enjoy your "re-tooling".

I can assure you with 100% certainty that Joey Moss in fact has more hockey knowledge and savvy in his pinky than i have in my entire body.

That man has been lucky enough to rub shoulders with more hockey talent and history than any human being I can think of, I am sure he has learned a tremendous amount through osmosis from these many great players and managers.

As Wayne Gretzky said in a recent interview , when the Dynasty was evolving they knew that one day they would all be gone but Joey Moss would still be there and sure enough that is how it went down.

I believe Mr. Moss has had a dream career, and certainly deserves more respect than to be compared to a random internet poster who wishes they could have walked in those footsteps. Forget the ass who was trying to be funny bringing Joey into the GDB that way, at least a few people have the balls to call them on it. Our fans have the same problem as the Players they dont defend the brotherhood, some prick takes an indirect shot at Joey Moss and we get no response ,I post more than others and there are ten people whining, for christ sakes.

Leave Joey Moss out of the conversation please.My apologies to Joey or any of his family who might read this, that poster has issues somewhere.

And by the way although Joey far surpasses me in hockey acumen without a doubt, the poster with no class doesnt seem to have much hockey talk to post which leads me to believe there is a major disconnect there somewhere. I think the poster is out of their league taking on either one of Joey or I, back to the peanut seats with you. We have Flames to snuff out tonight and its going to be a real riot pounding them into the ice for 60 mins and driving their tender from the net in the 1st period. Dont they have a rookie or two for us to target tonight, some fresh meat for Taylor and Ebbs and Nuge to work over, they got their s last year maybe its time to dish some out.

Yale win 4-0 in the frozen four. Agostino: five shots, one assist, plus one.
Kellen Jones, five shots, no points, minus three.
Gillies named the National Division I Rookie of the Year. College kids are looking good, I'm looking forward to seeing Hanowski.

I may not like the Lames very much (understatement), but I really really really want them to turn it around and make the playoffs next year. Just to have something else to throw at Klown and Dumbellini.